Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-02
SOUTHERN MEXICO.
JoURNEYNGs THROUGH THE
STATE OF JALISCO.
Habits and Customs of the Middle
Ages to be Found To-day on the
American Continent-Etc.
IREooRD-UsIoS Special Correspondence
~ ,oo-

IREooRD-USIoS Special Correspondence
GUADALAJARA, March D. 1887.
Northern people who have never trav-
eled in this country find it difficult to
realize that a weeks journey from New
York or Boston will bring one into per-
feet reproduction of the manners and GUS
toms Of the 'fifteenthand sixteenth centu-
ries. Not only are rich and powerful
cities hidden in these mountains-older
by two hundred years than any in the
United States, most of them accessible to
the tourist by no other mode of transit
than long, difficult and dangerous jour
neys on mule-back-but in the rural dis
tricts and provincial towns the,revolving
wheel of Father Time seems to have been
stopped a thousand years ago. While in
the Old World the habits and ussges of
bygone centuries remain but in history and
tradition, in portion of our own CONT
nent they exist unchanged as in the Mid
die Ages-as may be proved by walk
through the streets of any Jalisco village
and peep into its homes and churches.
About twenty miles north of Zapotlan is
the still older city of
sAYULA,
Which was fiourishing at its best century
before the first Spaniard saw these shores.
Il is said that Don Pedro de Alvarado Che
of the leaping exploit, for whose supposed
death Cortez shed the only tears of his life
on that memorable sad nightly expressed
especial admiration for this place, and
vowed by San Jago that he would settle
here when wars were over. Fortunately
for the natives, however, he never did.
After his Governorship of Honduras and
Guatemala, overweening avariee led him
back to Mexico, where he again marked his
pathway of conquest by fire and sword and
wholesale robbery in the names OF Carlos
v, King of Spain, and by way of :" Christ
ianizing" the Indians, practiced all the
diabolieal atrocities of the Inquisition upon
unotfending men, women and children.
The mills of the gods grind slowly" but
in this case they did indeed grind exceed
ing small for in an affray with the ma
tiyes on the coast of Michoacan he was
ANONYMOUSLY killed by his horse which
fell upon him and crushed him into
shapeless mass. In the same year (1541)
his wife and children persisted in an mum
dation, accompanied by a frightful tenn
pest, which overthrow the walls of the
Spanish city, San Jago. and destroyed every
being who could perpetuate the Conqueror's
name. No hero of history-unless it may
be his friend, CorteZ-has received more
misplaced admiration for his daring and
romantic adventures, and no greater rascal
ever lived.
Sayula has present population of about
fifteen thousand, and enjoys much better
reputation than its more powerful neigh
Dor, Zapotlan. Before reaching this place
our escort was reduced, and in the peaceful
little city we felt as secure as you in Sac
ramento. The natives hereabouts are uni
Yersally engaged in agriculture or the
manufacture of salt. None are idle, and
none seem either very rich or very poor.
The sleepy old town has the same general
features as many have described to you
the same straight, stony and grass-grown
streets; low-walled adobe houses, each
overrun with creepeIs and with an aspiring
clump of green breaking through its flat
roof-like scalp-locks through the torn hat
of a school boy-denoting the usual inner
court, with its growing figs, bananas and
oranges. In the streets, which are all mo-
notonously alike, with blank walls lining
the pavements, closed doors and barred
easements, one sees few signs of active life
and rarely meets anybody but the bare
footed or sandal-shod classes. Occasionally
the aristocrats eondescend to take
AN EVENING AIRING
In the ancient Alameda ("grove of elms ",
on horseback or in their clumsy old-fash-
toned chariots-but for the most part they
are too indolent to go beyond their own
private grounds. They certainly have
room enough within their own walls,
where they are diligently served by nu-
merous attendants and so far above " the
common hero" do they feel themselves
that it must be a source of perpetual sur
prise to them that the Lord neglected to
provide separate atmosphere for lungs
patrician and plebeian.
There is the invariable plaza, full of old
trees and adobe benches, with churches on
three sides of it and market-house on
the other. The most interesting object in
Sayula is an ancient cathedral, built by
CoItez in the year 1929. 1t is an exact type
of the peculiar architecture of old Spain
bit of Badaioz or Granada transferred to
the nineteenth century. Its fret work, i'm
ages and quaint wood-caryiDgs, its pillars
and paintings rich affairs, gloomy arcades
and mysterious passages which communi-
cate with the vaults of the dead beneath
and lead to the stately palace of the Bishop,
are all remarkable.
To the left of the town lies the Lago de
Sayula-a beautiful lake of unknown
nesting near its shores, surrounded by
fields Of cane and coffee. In all this land
of loveliness have seen no more beautiful
picture than the Lago at sunrise, with
millions of birds Swimming its mirror-like
surface. and the fragrant fields around it
stretching away TO the wooded mountains.
On our northward journey we leave Sa-
yula at 3 o'clock in the morning, in that
T" darkest hour " which precedes the dawn.
We piled ourselves and our belongings into
the creaking old diligencia, without those
feelings Of cheerful security so greatly to be
desired, not knowing, in the total darkness,
who our companions might be. The driver
snapped his whip with noise like the re-
port of a pistol, and his loud Yamanos
mulas hah-ha-a-a-ahl !" was re-
echoed by the silent hills as we rumbled
away at a sharp pace over the rocky high
way. When daylight appeared we found
ourselves in a broad valley, near the shore
of a marshy lake, which literally swarmed
with
BIRDS OF VARIOUS FEATHER.
The waters were actually hidden by
duck, teal. cranes, herons and numerous
other aquatic fowl while in the shadows,
scarlet-breasted hamingos and other tall
birds strutted about on their fishing expe-
dition, or dozed upon one leg-for all the
world like those absurd pictures on Japa-
nese ire-screens. For other miles the trees
and bushes are alive with mocking birds,
tiny plea. flores cumming birds), gorgeous
cardinals" all blood-red, and an infinite
variety whose names do not know Oc-
casionally we come upon colony of Sopi-
Totes, perched upon blasted tree or the
clean-picked bones of some dead animal
those mute, black birds of unclean habits
and horrible suggestions-the seavengers
of the South, who wait upon death, disease
and murder, and who seemed to eye us as
if longing for feast.
Passing through a small village. we met
an Indian procession shooting off rockets
at MONDAY in honor of some religious
fiesta. They carried a cradle OF braided
grass, full Of tinsel and bright-hued paper,
within which lay waxen figure of the in
fant Iesns hedeckad with raner shavinrs